William Adamson

William Adamson (2 April 1863-23 February 1936) was leader of the UK Labor Party from 24 October 1917 to 14 February 1921, succeeding Arthur Henderson and preceding J.R. Clynes.

Biography
William Anderson was born in Halbeath, Scotland, United Kingdom on 2 April 1863. Anderson became a miner at the age of eleven, and he soon became an active trade unionist. He became a UK Labor Party local councillor in 1905, and he was elected as a Labor MP for West Fife in 1910, starting his political career. He was the first Scottihsh miner to enter Parliament, and he served as chairperson of the parliamentary Labor Party from 1917 to 1921, leading the party in the House of Commons. In the 1918 general elections, Labor emerged as the second largest party in Parliament, and Adamson became the party's first leader of the opposition. Illness forced him to hand over to J.R. Clynes in 1921, but he served as Secretary of State for Scotland in the first two Labor governments (1924, 1929-1931). He died in 1936.